Qianodus duplicis

Qianodus duplicis

The oldest “teeth”

Age 

Llandovery, Silurian, 439 million years ago

Distribution 

Shiqian, Guizhou, China

Taxonomy 

Chondrichthyes

Brief description

The whorls of Qianodus are up to 2.5 mm long and possess non-shedding teeth arranged in a pair of rows, revealing the morphology and structure of the oldest gnathostome teeth

Trivia 

The presence of tooth whorls in the lower Silurian extends the earliest fossil record of teeth back by approximately 13 million years